“FIGHTING FREE” FOR TOO LONG?
San Francisco, CA– Never really understood why the Olympic Committee makes it so hard for aspiring professional boxers. First the gaudy headgear make amateur boxing less impersonal for the fan both on TV and live. Today amateur boxing reminds me more like an unexciting version of those TV gladiators sans sticks. But I’m not here today to talk about the “pity-pat” fight game. No, this AM we delve into one of the many great amateur boxers who “fought free” too long.
WHEN YOU NEED TO LOOK AT MORE THAN DA’ RECORD
Turning pro in 1979, Clint Jackson was such an amateur that people were stunned when he didn’t medal in an Olympiad. Many times a National AAU champ, this when it meant something, runner up at the World Games, Clint was 23-2 when he met 14-6-1 Buster Drayton. A sparring partner for then middleweight king Marvin Hagler, Drayton destroyed Jackson in less than two rounds on ESPN. From that point forward, there was more bad than good and Clint retired at 25-7, (19 KOs) in 1985.
WENT FROM BOXING TO EXTORTION
According to BoxRec.com, their bio paints a different picture of Jackson, a one-time Deputy Sheriff in Alabama or Tennessee, in 1989 Clint kidnapped a banker in Alabama and held him ransom for $9,000. You just know that went over well, a black guy grabbing a white Alabama banker in the south. Well, it didn’t and Jackson got a Life sentence. He has a a Parole hearing sometime in 2011.
CAN’T BLAME “FIGHTING FOR FREE” TENURE
The real focus of this story was supposed to be that Jackson screwed up and should have turned professional earlier, most likely after not making the Olympic team in 1976. Now after having my memory jogged by the great BoxRec.com, I’ve changed my mind. Clint’s problems can directly be tied to the fact he was a drunken sociopath!
Pedro Fernandez